Reassessing the Stroke Belt: Using Small Area Spatial Statistics to Identify Clusters of High Stroke Mortality in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

The stroke belt is described as an 8-state region with high stroke mortality across the southeastern United States. Using spatial statistics, we identified clusters of high stroke mortality (hot spots) and adjacent areas of low stroke mortality (cool spots) for US counties and evaluated for regional differences in county-level risk factors.

Methods

A cross-sectional study of stroke mortality was conducted using Multiple Cause of Death data (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to compute age-adjusted adult stroke mortality rates for US counties. Local indicators of spatial association statistics were used for hot-spot mapping. County-level variables were compared between hot and cool spots.

Results

Between 2008 and 2010, there were 393 12

SUBMITTER: Karp DN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4927355 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature